Graduate Certificates
Organizational Change
The Graduate Certificate in Organizational Change is a multi-disciplinary and multi-sector approach to the theory and practice of transforming organizations and communities in a technologically advanced and global economy. Students will have an opportunity to develop knowledge and competencies appropriate to the advanced study and diagnosis of evolving and emerging organizations and communities in the public, private, and nonprofit arena. They will find a curriculum supportive of careers in academics, management, and consulting.
The Graduate Certificate in Organizational Change:
- Emphasizes the dynamic and non-linear nature of change
- Focuses on multiple levels of analyses of change
- Stresses the action-research and psychodynamic orientation of change
- Gives students the opportunity to analyze organizations and communities in the field or through case studies; and explores in-depth the role of a change agent
The following courses are required:
- PA 8610 Group Dynamics and Conflict Resolution
- Focuses on the study of group psychology in the context of communities and organizations. It provides a specific examination of the emergence and resolution of conflict.
- PA 8620 Organizational Analysis and Change
- Investigates processes and methodologies of organizational diagnosis, intervention strategies, and the role of a change agent.
- PA 8630 Organizational Change in a Community and Global Context
- Examines changing organizations in their task environments, which include communities and the global economy. The phenomenon of ambiguous boundaries between public and private as well as nonprofit sectors will be investigated as these profound changes impact organizational behavior.
The fourth course is an elective chosen in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies from among the courses offered by the Truman School or by another graduate unit at MU. Students without prior coursework in organization theory and behavior will take PA 8160, Organizational Dynamics and Leadership, as their elective.